


passive me, aggressive you

by restless5oul



Category: Formula 1 RPF, GP2 Series RPF, Motorsport RPF
Genre: Alcohol, Awkwardness, Car Accidents, Drunken Shenanigans, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, George is an anxious bean, Jack just wants to have fun, Love Confessions, M/M, Road Trips, Sharing a Bed, Unresolved Tension, Vomiting, accidental nudity, boys kissing in cars, hand holding, petty crimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-03-27 20:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13888974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/restless5oul/pseuds/restless5oul
Summary: when they had arrived at the airport to find that their flight from barcelona to paris had been cancelled it had been jack’s idea to drive instead. naturally.***in which an impromptu road trip turns into a lesson in how to lighten up and let go.





	1. i.

**Author's Note:**

> apparently i am a hoe for road trip-based fics.  
> also these two.  
> i'm not sure how many chapters this will be, so let's see.
> 
> also: i know george wasn't at pre-season testing but for the sake of the fic let's pretend he was.

When they had arrived at the airport to find that their flight from Barcelona to Paris had been cancelled it had been Jack’s idea to drive instead. Naturally. George would have rather stood and argued with the airport staff and wait around in the airport for hours until they found another flight. But Jack claimed that keeping moving would make them feel less cooped up and frustrated. Plus, he did have a point when he said that a giant snowstorm didn’t just disappear overnight.

Both had to leave the Formula 1 tests early, so they could get back to their team and do some final preparations before their own testing the following week. George minded a lot less than he should have. It was cold and the days were long hanging around the track just trying to watch and learn. It was lonely too, trying to stay out of everyone’s way and just be a quiet pair of eyes in the corner. Though he knew he deserved to be there, it all made George feel horribly out of his depth and, though he wouldn’t admit it, he was glad Jack was there so he had someone who understood how the whole reserve driver thing wasn’t nearly as fun as they’d both imagined.

Jack was always good for a laugh, and fun to hang around with when George’s spirits were low. Like right at that moment, when the two of them stood in the queue for the car rental service, dragging along their suitcases and wearing too many layers of clothing for the stifling hot airport, which was a stark contrast to the freezing weather outside.

“Are you sure this is a better idea?” George asked, for about the third time.

“Yes I’m sure,” and George could tell Jack was resisting the urge to roll his eyes, “It’s only two o’clock right now, we can get a few solid hours of driving in today, stop somewhere for the night, and if we really push we’ll be there by tomorrow evening. I bet you we wouldn’t get a flight out of here for a few days at this rate.”

George glanced at him sideways, and his scepticism must have shown on his face.

“And besides, it’ll be fun.”

Jack clearly had different ideas of what constituted fun. In fact, George knew he did. Spontaneity and spur of the moment decisions were just one huge adventure to him. While if anything, they were two things that just stressed George out. He liked to know what he was doing and where he was going. And if that made him boring then he didn’t particularly care.

“Fun? Right, if you say so.”

Jack just stuck his tongue out at him before the two of them made it to the front of the line and approached the desk. It was relatively easy to find them a car. There was only the two of them and their two suitcases after all, so they didn’t need a particularly big car, just one that was up to the journey. The only slight hitch was that George was too young to be allowed to drive it, the man behind the desk telling them they he had to be at least twenty-one.

“I literally drive for a living,” he said looking bemused, whether the man’s English wasn’t good enough for him to understand George, or he just didn’t particularly care, he ignored him and took Jack’s license from him to examine.

“Maybe next time kiddo,” Jack laughed, reaching up to pat him on the shoulder, seemingly taking great delight in this turn of events.

“I’m literally two years younger than you,” George snapped as Jack signed a piece of paper and was handed a set of keys in return.

“Aw come on, lighten up, at least this means you get to be navigator.”

Heading back out into the cold and the snow, they found their car amongst the rows and rows of unclaimed rentals, it was small but it would do the job. George offered to load their suitcases into the back so Jack could get to grips with how the car actually worked before they set off. And by the time he got into the passenger seat, he had already started up the car, turned on the heating and flicked on the radio.

George saw that Jack had wasted no time in pulling off his hat and Renault team jacket, so he did the same with his, despite the fact that he was still pretty cold, he would warm up soon enough.

“Ready?” Jack turned to ask him, grinning as ever.

George just nodded.

“There’s a map in the glove compartment in you want to use that, or you can use your phone if you don’t mind racking up the roaming charges,” he said, putting the car into reserve and pulling out of the parking space.

It took George a few seconds to realise what the hell Jack was talking about, so he just stared at him as he tried to work it out.

“You need to tell me where to go? I’m not entirely sure how we get from Spain to France,” Jack laughed at George’s confused expression.

“Oh. Right,” George said, trying to busy himself with pulling the map from the glove compartment, hoping his mild embarrassment didn’t show on his face. It had been years since he’d tried to use one, but he really did not fancy earning himself an astronomical phone bill. Luckily they weren’t far from the motorway so it was relatively easy to get them going in the right direction.

He felt like he should have relaxed a little now that they’d got going, Jack certainly had, already humming along to whatever song was playing on the radio, the light easiness practically oozing from him. But George’s brain still hadn’t adjusted to the unexpected turn of events. He was too preoccupied by the fact that it was still snowing outside and Paris was an awful long way from Barcelona and he didn’t think he had a set of clean clothes in his suitcase or anything diet-approved to eat so what was he going to do come dinner time and maybe he should call his mum and tell her what had happened and-

 _He really had to stop thinking_.

He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, trying to get himself to just let go of everything running around in his head and just enjoy the moment, but it was a train wreck up in there.

He was on a spontaneous road trip with one of his best friends, it was every teenager’s dream. Yet here he was, panicking about it all.

“You okay?” Jack asked, and from the gaps between his fingers George could see him glance sideways, a concerned look flitting across his face. That just made him feel even worse because now he’d made Jack feel sorry for him, when really he had no reason to feel anxious at all.

“George?” it was only when Jack repeated himself that George realised he hadn’t replied yet. He inhaled sharply and let the breath out slowly, taking his hands from his face and placing them in his lap, trying to ignore the fact that his arms felt like they were filled with lead.

“M’fine,” he lied.

“No you’re not,” Jack countered immediately, he knew George too well to believe anything he said, “I’ll pull over.”

“No don’t do that!” George said. They had barely been driving half an hour and he didn’t want to hold them up already. The weather didn’t seem to be getting any better and he was beginning to doubt whether they would make it to Paris by the next day.

“It’s fine, you could use the fresh air,” Jack was already indicating and pulling the car over into the layby. Once they were stationery he reached over to undo George’s seatbelt, and it was then that he realised it had felt too tight around his chest, like he couldn’t get enough air in his lungs.

“Out,” Jack said, gesturing that he should open the door, which George did, shivering as he was hit by an icy blast of air and trying to ignore the traffic that trundled on by. He turned to see that Jack had also got out the car, and was walking round to his side, away from the road, and holding his Mercedes jacket in his hand.

“You’ll need this,” he said, handing it to him. And he hurried to put it on, wrapping his arms around himself as he stood there, hoping that something would click in his brain and he would magically start to calm down. Jack was right about the fresh air though, it felt easier to breathe, lighter somehow.

“What’s wrong?” Jack asked, the serious expression looking foreign on his face, which George was so used to seeing wearing a smile. He reached up to brush a few flakes of snow from his hair.

“I don’t know, I-…I think I’m just stressed about the cancelled flight and whether we’ll make it to the factory in time, and that I didn’t plan for any of this.”

“You can’t plan for everything.”

“I wish I could,” George mumbled, a little childishly maybe.

“You need to lighten up George,” Jack laughed a little, “You don’t have to be so…in control all the time. It’s fine to just let stuff be.”

George frowned at him;

“Did you just call me highly strung?”

“Sort of. But that wasn’t my point. I meant that you need to just have some fun, let go, you know?”

He eyed Jack sceptically, maybe it seemed easy enough for him, but Jack was a very different person to him, it probably wasn’t all that difficult for him to switch off the nagging voices in his brain.

“My brain just isn’t wired that way Jack,” he shrugged.

“Well if you don’t like it, change it.”

“I can’t just _change_ the way I think.”

“No, but you can change what you do.”

He made it sound so easy. Jack patted him on the arm and nodded towards the car that was idling behind him.

“Come on, I’ll teach you.”

Despite himself George laughed;

“You’ll teach me how to have fun?”

“Sure, why not?”


	2. ii.

George was a horrible passenger. He trusted Jack’s driving abilities one hundred per cent, but having to sit there while he steered the car through the snow in the dark of the night was not fun. Eventually they were forced the follow the cars head in a single file as the roads were covered in ice and snow, save for the two tracks where the tyres of previous cars had been. This led to them driving at about thirty miles per hour and going nowhere very fast. They weren’t even sure if they were out of Spain yet, despite having been driving for several hours. And to make matters worse, Jack looked tired, with neither of them having eaten anything for dinner and the time nearing midnight.

“I’m sorry George I really think I have to stop,” he said after the twentieth or so time he yawned into the back of his hand. They’d previously decided they should just push on for as long as possible, but that wouldn’t work if Jack fell asleep at the wheel. Even George felt like he was going to nod off sometime soon and he’d been doing nothing but listening to the radio and trying to keep Jack awake by talking to him.

“It’s okay. I mean we can barely see two feet in front of us, it’s probably safer to stop,” he gestured out the window where it was just possible to make out the lights of the car in front. It had been bad enough driving when it was daylight, but now night had fallen it was near impossible.

“I saw a sign for a service station not too far back, keep an eye out for me.”

A couple miles or so later they pulled off the motorway, cautiously trundling through the inch-thick snow as they pulled into the service station car park. It was mostly empty, a few trucks parked up for the night and several cars dotted around, but most looked like they’d been there a while; thick snow sitting atop their roofs.

“Look! Perfect!” Jack exclaimed as he parked the car in what George hoped was an actual spot. It was impossible to make out the lines of the concrete.

George glanced up to see what he was pointing at, most of the cafes and shops were shut, but in front of them, lights blazing to indicate it was still open, and a sign outside it proudly stating it was open twenty-four hours a day was a McDonald’s.

“Come on, I’m starving,” Jack said, shutting off the engine and clambering out the car with way too much energy for someone who had said they were tired not too long ago. George followed him into the restaurant a few paces behind.

It was totally empty with the exception of a bored looking teenager stood behind the counter, tapping away on her phone, and another lazily mopping on the other side of the room. They both looked as tired as George and Jack did.

“You sit down, I’ll order,” Jack turned round, slowly walking backwards towards the counter as he spoke.

“But I want to order my own food,” George said.

“Um no, I’m not letting you order five bags of carrot sticks and calling that dinner. Fun remember? You’re getting a burger,” Jack shooed him with his hand and George knew from experience that there was no winning an argument against Jack so he just sat himself down on the nearest table and tried to ignore the fact that the girl with the mop had stopped what she was doing to stare at the two of them.

He tried not to smirk as Jack ordered their food using broken Spanish and unnecessarily over-exaggerated hand gestures. Though it wasn’t as though he could have done any better. He didn’t like to admit, but the idea of having something that didn’t fit to the meal plan the nutritionist at Mercedes had given him filled him with trepidation. It wasn’t as though he had been told to stick to it strictly, but he didn’t want to take any chances. His height disadvantaged him enough as it was, he didn’t want to go piling on the extra pounds to slow him down even more.

As though he could sense him stewing over his worries in his head, Jack placed a red plastic tray down on the table, a little harder than was probably necessary. George blinked a few times, trying to shake the tiredness and thoughts from his head. It probably wasn’t helpful to his mental state that he was shattered.

“Dinner is served,” Jack announced with a flourish as he sat down opposite George, making him smile. He took a burger and a drink off the tray and pushed them in front of George before taking his own and leaving a bag of chips in the middle for them to share.

George considered them for a moment before he looked up at Jack, who was already popping a couple of chips into his mouth.

“What are they?” he asked, pointing at the food in front of him.

“Chicken burger, chocolate milkshake,” he said through a mouthful of food, unwrapping his own burger at the same time. George was simultaneously surprised and not that Jack had remembered that was his favourite drink. Which to him seemed all the more reason why he shouldn’t have any of it.

“Jack I can’t-,” he started but Jack had seemed to sense his refusal coming because he cut across him almost instantly.

“Yes you can, honestly you-…”

It was George’s turn to interrupt him;

“I know, I know, I’m skinny enough as it is, I need some meat on my bones, etcetera, etcetera,” he rolled his eyes, thinking of what his older sister said every time she saw him as she poked at his ribs making him laugh and squirm all at once, and how his mother would fuss over him as she tried to get him to accept her offer of dessert.

“ _Actually_ , I was going to say you never treat yourself,” Jack said, staring him down, before he shrugged and added, “So what you’re tall and skinny, it’s your thing, you work it.”

That actually made George laugh, properly, before he watched Jack scan his eyes across the parts of his body he could see, which made the mad thought of – _oh my god I think he’s flirting with me_ – pop into George’s head. Which shouldn’t have surprised him as much as it did. Jack flirted with almost everyone, it was his way of being friendly. He just had never really tried that with George before, no one really did. Which was what he put his flustered reaction down to.

“When was the last time you actually had fast food?” Jack asked, giving him a very pointed look.

“Uh…”

“See! You can’t even remember!”

“It was a while ago,” George admitted.

“ _Exactly_ , so this won’t kill you, I promise,” Jack said, taking a generous helping of his burger.

“Okay, okay…” George conceded, and Jack flashed a victorious smile his way.

George unwrapped his burger and took a big bite out of it before he could change his mind. He was starving which somehow made it taste even better, if that was possible. By the time he had finished it, Jack’s burger was long gone and he was absentmindedly drinking through his straw, staring around the restaurant. He only looked back at George when he reached to take the half bag of chips Jack had left for him.

“Woah, wait a minute,” he said suddenly making George freeze, before he saw the look of fake-shock that Jack was wearing on his face, “Is that George Russell willingly eating carbs?”

He gasped dramatically and clutched his hand to his chest and George just laughed at him.

“Shut up,” he muttered, throwing a stray chip towards Jack’s head, which he dodged with ease.

Jack looked very pleased with himself as George polished off the chips and then sipped his milkshake slowly, trying to savour it.

“You think we’ll get told off if we try to sleep in here?” Jack asked him a few minutes later, glancing at the two girls who were now stood talking with their heads together.

“Probably,” George said.

“Guess we’re stuck in the car.”

George glanced out the window at the snowy landscape beyond it that was just visible, he knew how cold it was out there and even inside the car it would still be too cold to be comfortable. He pouted at the thought.

“It’ll be freezing,” he said sadly, draining the last of his drink with an obnoxiously loud slurping sound.

“We could always huddle for warmth,” Jack said, wiggling his eyebrows at George, which made him look downright ridiculous.

“Whatever Jack,” he laughed as he stood up and pulled on his jacket again.

“I’m being serious, penguins do it, it totally helps.”

“I’m not cuddling you!”

“ _Fine_ , well you can’t say I didn’t try.”

George rolled his eyes, despite the fact that Jack was behind him and couldn’t see his face. The snow seemed to have risen a couple more inches since they’d last left the car, and George was vaguely worried that they’d wake up in the morning to find themselves snowed in, but he was too tried to think too hard about that.

Rooting through their suitcases for warmer clothes, George ended up curled up in the passenger seat, wrapped up in three different jumpers, a scarf, hat and even a pair of gloves. Without the heating on, the cold air seemed to seep into the car through every possible gap. Jack, meanwhile, was laid across the back seat, buried beneath two coats. It wasn’t particularly comfortable for either of them, but they were fine with making do.

“I have a great idea of what we can do tomorrow,” Jack murmured just as the two of them were nodding off.

“I thought we were going to try reach Paris tomorrow,” George mumbled, not even bothering to open his eyes.

“We’ll get there when we get there,” and George could picture Jack shrugging as he spoke, and he knew that he had no intention of heading to the factory in the morning. Maybe he was just too sleepy to care, but he didn’t think he minded that idea at all.


	3. iii.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is like, longer, to say i feel like not an awful lot happens lmao.

George woke up the next morning to the familiar feeling of the car rumbling along the road slowly, the engine humming distantly. There was a moment when he was confused as to why he was in a car at all, but then he remembered the events of the previous day and the cancelled flight and the McDonald’s with Jack. Then he felt the burning cramp in his legs and remembered that they had slept in the car.

Not that George had done much sleeping at all, it had been freezing and trying to get himself to drift off while squished into the passenger’s seat was a hell of a lot harder than he had anticipated. He didn’t know how long it took him to eventually get to sleep, but once he did he kept waking up, either because he was too cold or because his long limbs started aching. He didn’t know if Jack had fared much better, but a couple times he had woken up he could hear him lightly snoring, so clearly he had gotten some sleep.

Clearly in between the last time he had woken up, when the winter sun had been rising over the snowy car park, and now, Jack had got up and started the car and now they were driving down some road George didn’t recognise.

He blinked rapidly, trying to clear the sleep from his eyes, and tried to stretch his legs as far as he could.

“Morning,” he said with a groan, as he rubbed his eyes.

“Ah you’re awake!”

Jack looked over at him smiling, and picked the map up from where he had wedged it in between the handbrake and the fear stick and shoved it into George’s lap.

“You need to direct me, I don’t really know where I am.”

George stared down at the map for a second, his tired brain trying to catch up. He needed at least several more hours of sleep before he would function properly. Then he looked up again and realised they weren’t on the motorway anymore.

“Where are we?” he asked, looking at Jack and realising he must have slept as badly as him, he was squinting, like he was having trouble getting himself to focus and he looked paler than usual. George knew that Jack slept more than most humans he knew, so he couldn’t have been faring well on just a few hours.

“We should just about be in France now, I hope anyways.”

“Okay…” George looked back down at the map before he looked at Jack again, “And where exactly are we going?”

“Carcassone.”

“Where?!”

“I don’t really know. It’s some town in France, it’s on the way to Paris. And I don’t know about you but I think I might actually cease to function if I don’t get some actual sleep. There’s no way in hell I’ll make it more than a few more hours.”

George just stared at him, wondering when on earth Jack had decided this was where they would stop. He wouldn’t put it past him to have just closed his eyes and pressed his finger to the map.

“I googled towns nearby and found a hotel,” he shrugged, as though he could sense what George was thinking, “But then my phone died which is why I need you to use the map.”

He could sense there was no changing Jack’s mind, and honestly George would have really liked nothing more than to lie down on an actual bed and maybe eat something that wasn’t deep fried.

“Okay, okay. Where abouts are we now?” George sighed looking down at the map which showed the portion of southern France just north of the Spanish border. Jack seem surprised he had relented so quickly, though clearly that had been what he had wanted. Jack told him the name of the road they were on and with a pleasant lack of trouble George was able to direct him until they were driving out of the flat countryside and into the medieval town, complete with an actual castle sat atop a hill in the middle of the town.

“Pretty,” George commented as he peered through the window to look up at the citadel.

“Yeah it is,” Jack nodded looking pleased with himself, “Don’t I pick stuff well?”

“Come off it, you had no idea this was here,” George rolled his eyes, his voice only affectionately disparaging.

“…Yeah you’re right, but I had a feeling okay?”

“Whatever.”

Jack gave him the street the hotel was on, and they pulled up outside a small modest looking hotel, not exactly like the one they had been staying in at the testing. Still George was sure it would be better than sleeping in the car. There was less snow in France than there had been in Spain, but there was still a fair amount of slush and ice to navigate their way through before they made it into the reception, and it was also more than cold enough.

George let Jack do the talking as he got the two of them a room, and he tried not to look too surprised when Jack pulled out a hundred Euro bill to pay with. He didn’t even want to know why he was carrying so much money on him. He was just glad when the two of them finally got the lift up to the room, by which point George was dying for a nap.

Jack used the key card to unlock the door, pushing it open and leading George inside. Mostly it looked like every other hotel room he had stayed in, compact, but with all the necessities. But what stood out to him most of all was the fact that-

“There’s only one bed,” he said as the door swung shut behind him. Jack turned to look at him and didn’t seem to think that this was a problem like George did.

“Well yeah. There were no twin rooms left so I got us a double. Weren’t you listening to the receptionist?”

Truthfully, George had been too busy letting his mind wander, trying to convince himself that it was okay they were spending the day in some strange French town for no reason other than the fact that Jack wanted to. And trying to force himself to see the appeal in the spontaneity of it all.

“Come on, I’m not that bad am I?” Jack said, pouting with half-sincere look of offense on his face.

“I suppose not,” George sighed, like it was some deep hardship for him to have to do this, Jack responded by throwing a pillow at him that he picked up from off the bed.

Honestly he didn’t really care about having to share a bed with Jack, he knew him well enough not to feel awkward around him. And he was fairly sure there were a few occasions when they’d fallen asleep side by side on his sofa when they’d stayed up too late doing nothing, or times when George had woken up to find Jack sleeping on him during a long haul flight.

“And I don’t know about you but I’m shattered, so I’m going straight to sleep,” Jack yawned for emphasis and began digging a pair of pyjamas out of his suitcase for him to change into.

Too tired to even bother with that, George simply dragged himself over to the bed and tucked himself under the covers, still fully clothed. As soon as he had seen the bed all he had wanted to do was let himself sink into it and sleep until his head didn’t hurt so much anymore.

“Aren’t you going to get changed?” Jack asked him and George felt him get in the other side of the bed, but with his eyes closed he couldn’t see.

“Too tired,” he mumbled, burrowing himself further under the duvet, he could distantly hear Jack laughing quietly, but the sound faded as he felt the welcome sleep pull him under.

He didn’t know how long he’d been asleep for when he eventually woke up. It was still light out so it couldn’t have been that long. Stretching out his arms, George turned his head to find Jack’s face inches from his own, his mouth hanging open, drooling. He snorted at how gormless he looked, but he didn’t stir. George was beginning to regret his decision to sleep in his clothes, considering that he’d been wearing them for over twenty-four hours now. Quietly, so as not to wake Jack, he opened his suitcase and pulled out his last fresh t-shirt and headed over to the small bathroom in the corner of the room. He was starving by this point, and the bed hadn’t been as comfortable as he’d hoped, but a shower had to help make him feel like he wasn’t so sweaty and gross.

It took him a few goes to figure out how to get the shower at a temperature that wouldn’t scald his skin, but once he did he relaxed under the feeling of the warm water washing over his body, loosening up his aching arms and legs a little bit. He used the tiny bottle of shower gel that had been provided by the hotel, making sure to leave a little in case Jack wanted a shower too, and got out of the shower feeling better than he had when he’d gotten in.

He realised he’d forgotten to pick up a proper towel from the room, so had to make do with drying himself off with the small hand towel that sat on the rack next to the sink. It made the task take longer, but it did the job. He was in the process of using it to dry his hair when the door opened.

“ _Shit_ , sorry!” he heard Jack say before he had finished turning round to see who the intruder was. Jack was stood in the doorway, looking like he’d just woken up, one hand on the handle, and he at least had the decency to look mildly embarrassed at walking in on George when he hadn’t been wearing any clothes.

“ _Jack!_ ” he yelped in surprise, bringing his hands down from his hair to try cover himself. Though Jack had definitely seen enough by this point. He was blushing far too hard to pretend that he wasn’t embarrassed. He did, as a general rule, not make a habit of walking around naked in front of his friends. Nobody needed to see that.

“Sorry I wasn’t thinking! I didn’t know you’d be naked!” Jack said, his own face turning pink.

“I-it’s fine, I should have locked the door, it’s…never mind,” George stammered trying to get his humiliation under control a little bit. After the stressful past day, this was definitely the last thing he needed. And he wasn’t sure how he felt about the fact that Jack just wouldn’t stop _staring_.

“Why didn’t you lock the door?” Jack asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion as he finally looked up at George’s face.

George shrugged, trying not to move the towel that was precariously protecting his modesty;

“I forgot.”

Jack chuckled, smirking a little, and then there was a few seconds where neither of them said anything, just standing there, until George finally broke the silence;

“Do you think you could, uh, leave so I can get dressed?”

“ _Oh!_ Oh yeah sure,” Jack said and he rather hurriedly left the room, shutting the door behind himself.

George let out a long exhale once he was alone, not realising how much tension he had been holding in his body for those few awkward minutes. He glanced in the mirror to see that his face and most of his chest was still bright red, and he definitely resembled the look of a deer caught in headlights. He couldn’t look in the mirror too long though, knowing what he saw had been what Jack had seen just moments ago when he’d walked in.

But it had happened and he had to get over it. As much as Jack enjoyed teasing and banter, George didn’t think he’d actually make fun of him. Trying not to dwell on the pit of embarrassment in his stomach, George got dressed quickly and walked back into the bedroom to see Jack trying to plug his phone into the old socket on the wall. He looked up from where he was crouched on the floor when George walked in.

He smiled, a little more nervously than he might have on any other occasion, and for a second George thought he was going to try initiate a conversation about what happened, but instead he said;

“Fancy going to find some food? I’m starving.”


	4. iv.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is sorta short it feels like but it was fun to write :)

Half an hour or so later, George found himself sat opposite Jack in a cheap but cheerful Chinese restaurant (at least he had thought it was Chinese, he was beginning to think it was just a bizarre mish mash of as many different Asian cuisines as French people could imagine). The restaurant was one large room absolutely packed with families, teenagers and couples, all crammed in to tables that were pushed up into every available corner of the building. Jack and George had been seated near the door, so George shivered every time someone opened the door. The snow had stopped but it was still bitingly cold outside.

George had told Jack he could pick where they eat, and he fully expected to be taken to another fast food restaurant, or made to wolf down a whole pizza in one sitting. Instead he’d chosen one about three doors down from their hotel, probably because he was so damn hungry. George had been able to hear his stomach growling from the other side of the hotel room as they’d gotten ready. He hadn’t even chastised him as he’d ordered the closest thing to a salad on the menu – which admittedly he could not read as it was mostly in French.

He strongly suspected that he felt bad about the whole ‘walking in on George naked’ thing. George had to distract himself from thinking about that for too long. The embarrassment was still fresh, and he could feel his face start to burn up thinking about the whole humiliating incident. Mostly because he still hadn’t been able to decipher the expression on Jack’s face which had been uncharacteristically bashful but with a hint of something-

 _He really had to stop thinking about it_.

He attempted to focus on the Jack that was sat opposite him instead, who was in the middle of telling him some story about one of the times he had tried to make Korean food with his mum. And was telling George that what he was eating would never pass her taste tests.

“I’m much better now though,” he said with a proud look on his face.

“You can cook?” George asked, a little surprised, his attention grabbed by this titbit of news. He had been to Jack’s house a few times, though admittedly they usually met in the middle at Alex’s. But on the occasion he had been, Jack had never cooked for him. He was awfully fond of oven pizza.

“Yeah, I mean, usually I’m too lazy to. But I’m actually pretty good, even if I do say so myself.”

“That’s…unexpected,” George said, which made Jack laugh.

“I’m positively domesticated didn’t you know?”

George just smiled at him, feeling some of the awkward tension that had been lingering over them melt away. The two of them didn’t fight often, but on the odd occasion where they did – usually because Jack pushed a joke too far and George snapped – they were experts at slipping back into their usual easiness. Admittedly, they’d never found themselves in a situation where, if George had been brave enough, he would have said that their interactions had become loaded with sexual tension, but he didn’t even let himself think that particular train of thought.

“Well that was the most mediocre meal I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Jack said, putting down his chopsticks. George snorted. And he had to agree. It had been mostly bland and underwhelming, but it had filled a hole in his stomach.

Jack caught the waiter’s attention and clumsily asked for the bill in French. He then looked at George and said;

“Your treat.”

George was baffled for a second.

“I don’t have any money on me.”

“Why not?” Jack asked, suddenly looking a little alarmed.

“I, uh, just don’t usually carry money on me when I’m away and everything’s paid for,” George shrugged. Mercedes had paid for everything while he was at testing, the flights, the food, the hotel, the airport transfer. He just hadn’t needed money.

“Why?!” Jack seemed to be having a hard time getting his head around this concept.

“So I don’t get tempted to spend money I don’t have,” George explained. He wasn’t exactly an impulse buyer, he was actually pretty frugal, but he still didn’t trust himself entirely. It wasn’t as though he had no money, but his parents had always made sure he understood that it wasn’t something he could just throw around. Money was hard earned and therefore had to be spent carefully.

“Right, great, perfect. Absolutely fantastic,” Jack groaned, his voice dripping with sarcasm. George didn’t really see what the big issue was.

“Why don’t you just pay? You know I’ll pay you back when we get home.”

“I left my wallet in the hotel room.”

 _Oh._ That was a problem.

“Why did you do that?!” now it was George’s turn to panic.

“I don’t know I thought it’d be fine, I thought you’d have money!”

“Oh my god, oh my god, what do we do?” George asked, suddenly feeling like every waiter in there had turned to look at them and could just sense that they were penniless. The fact that Jack’s expression matched how panicked he felt made him feel justified in freaking out this time.

“Ok, ok, “Jack muttered like he was thinking and trying to get himself to calm down at the same time, “We’ll just have to leave.”

“Without paying?!” George’ voice rose a few octaves and Jack shushed him.

“Well, obviously.”

“We can’t do that! It’s like stealing!”

“I mean, we’ve already eaten the food so we’ve already stolen from them, technically.”

“Can’t we just explain-?”

“Do you really think that’s going to work?”

“Well it’s more honest!”

“Oh come on, don’t act like you’ve never stolen anything before. This can’t have cost more than twenty euros it’s fine.”

To George this was so far from fine. This was breaking the rules, breaking the law in fact. He already felt guilty and he was only entertaining the idea of actually doing it. But Jack was right. He didn’t actually know what else they could do.

“Come on,” Jack said a little softer this time, placing his hand on top of George’s where he had curled it into a fist to grasp at the table cloth, “Fun remember?”

“Fun?” his voice came out sounding very uncertain.

“Well, it’ll be an adrenaline rush anyway.”

George laughed weakly. Jack glanced behind his shoulder furtively and schooled his expression into a more serious one as he hunched over his shoulders so he could lean in and no one would overhear them.

“Okay, I’m going to pretend to go to the bathroom, and I’ll leave out the back somehow. Then when the coast is clear, you just get up and walk out of the front door.”

He made it sound incredibly simple. George was sure that once Jack left all of his fleeting courage would leave him and he’d end up in the kitchen, washing up dishes to try pay for his meal.

He nodded but didn’t say anything. So Jack began to stand up, making George reach out quickly and grab onto his forearm.

“Wait-,”

“You’ll be fine, you got this,” Jack patted the hand on his arm before he continued standing up, and sauntered over to the bathroom at the back of the room.

George couldn’t shake the feeling that he was doing something very bad, and very wrong, but he knew he didn’t have long until the waiter came over and asked for payment for the meal. And Jack was right after all, they had already eaten, so all the damage was done. Trying his hardest not to look too suspicious, George scanned the room and saw the waiters were stood serving people on the other side, so now was probably his best chance. Keeping his head down, and feeling his heartbeat pound in his ears, he rose slowly and made his way to the door, grateful that it was so close now.

As he pulled it open the bell on the top rang out, high pitched above the humming chatter of the customers inside, George cringed at the noise, knowing someone would look up and see him and he hesitated for some reason and-

“Hey!” one of the waiters shouted. And George looked up to see the two of them staring at him. He froze as one began to call to him in rapid French. It wasn’t until they actually started to walk towards him that he moved.

Grateful for those racing driver reflexes he turned on the balls of his feet and ran. He didn’t have a clue where Jack had gone, but he just sprinted up the cobbled street, away from the restaurant and in the opposite direction to their hotel. When he was about halfway up he glanced over his shoulder to see that one of the waiters had followed him out and was somewhat half heartedly running up the road after him.

But George’s long legs made him much faster. He reached an intersection and tried to take a left and promptly bumped into someone. Jack.

“Hey you made it!” Jack grinned, looking pleased to see him, then he realised that George was in a hurry, “Why are you running?”

George just shook his head and grabbed Jack’s hand so he could take off running again. Jack seemed to understand what was happening, though he didn’t actually say anything, because he quickly matched George’s pace, so he didn’t have to drag him along anymore, but he didn’t let go of his hand.

He was fairly sure the waiter wouldn’t actually follow him that far. But he didn’t want to take a risk, so he kept up the running from a few more blocks, before slowing to a jog and eventually walking pace, feeling way too out of breath. He was glad he decided to stop because he had a stitch growing in his side.

Now that the immediate danger had worn off Jack started laughing. He raised their still joined hands in celebration.

“We did it!” he whooped, and George might have told him off for celebrating breaking the law any other time, but he was feeling pretty relieved himself.

“I’m never ever doing that again,” he shook his head, but he was smiling.

“It was a little bit fun, you have to admit it,” Jack looked up at him, “See you’re smiling!”

He pointed at the grin on George’s face, looking victorious.

“I literally hate you,” he said, but there was no malic behind his words.

“Nah you don’t.”

“Yeah you’re right,” George shrugged, slinging his arm around Jack’s shoulders.


	5. v.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> life and uni got in the way and meant i didn't update this sooner. oops!

“But you know what I want to do now,” Jack said, turning from to face George, a pair of tatty tourist sunglasses now perched on his face.

After the restaurant incident and the escape from the waiter they had been wandering the streets, peering in shops, and trying to stay warm as the temperature dropped as night fell. The streets they walked were cobbled, and older than any place George had been before. It was nice, and weirdly he felt better about being there after the events of the day. Maybe he shouldn’t, given that he’d technically just broken the law for the first time in his life, but the momentary panic had released a wave of stress from him.

“Please don’t say it’s buy those sunglasses,” George laughed as Jack pouted. He spun round again to look back in the small mirror attached to the sunglasses stand.

“You don’t think they suit me?”

George shook his head. And Jack took the sunglasses off and placed them back on the stand.

“And no, that wasn’t what I was going to say. I was going to say I wanted to get drunk.”

“You want to drink? Why?” George barked a laugh.

“I just do! I’m in a good mood, and I don’t want to stay in that teeny hotel room all evening.”

“I thought you didn’t have any money.”

“I do, I just left it in the room.”

George paused a second before he gave Jack an answer. Not that he had even asked him, or given him much of a choice. George didn’t think Jack would accept him saying no. Or maybe he would. But George didn’t much like the idea of Jack going out alone, even in a town as quiet and quaint as this one. Nor did he fancy staying in the room on his own.

He could see Jack looking up at him with those ridiculously big brown eyes, and he sighed.

“Okay, but let’s not go crazy.”

“Yes!!” Jack grinned and for a moment George thought he was going to hug him he looked so excited, but in the end he settled for clapping him on the shoulder, “We’ll go back and I can get my wallet.”

It took them a little while to find the hotel again, but once they did Jack picked up his wallet and George pulled an extra jacket out of his suitcase. Jack raised an eyebrow at him when he saw George do that.

“What? It’s freezing outside,” he shrugged as he pulled on the jacket. It might not have been snowing, but he would have bet that the temperatures were sub-zero. And George had always seemed particularly susceptible to the cold.

Jack led the two of them into a bar they had passed earlier. It was small, and sat right at the foot of the old castle they had seen as they’d walked around earlier. Mercifully, it was warm inside and once Jack sat them down at a table George started peeling off the layers he’d been wearing. It was probably still a little early for the locals to be coming in for drinks, but there were a few people in, and the relative quiet meant that they could find themselves a space tucked away in the corner.

Jack asked George to watch his things while he went to go buy them some drinks, and he returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses. George had half been expecting shots, so he guessed this had to be an improvement.

“I’ll pay you back when I’m home. And for the hotel too,” George said quickly as Jack poured them each a glass.

“Nonsense it’s fine,” Jack waved him off.

“The hotel was like fifty euros!”

“I said it’s no big deal,” Jack shrugged, pushing one of the glasses towards George, “Now drink.”

George took a sip while Jack took a much more liberal mouthful of his wine. Jack frowned at him disapprovingly before knocking back about half of his glass. Even though he could feel Jack watching him and silently egging him on, George just sipped again.

“Oh come on George, is that all you’ve got?” Jack groaned and placed his glass down on the table with a considerable amount of force.

“You know alcohol goes straight to my head,” George said, shuddering as he recalled the blurry, vague memories of his last night out. He’d have three, maybe four drinks too quickly, and the next thing he knew Alex was having to wrestle his drunk ass into his hotel bed which he was intent on not staying in. Maybe he should have been grateful he couldn’t remember more if that was how he’d ended his night.

“Yeah but it also makes you fuuuuun,” Jack said in a singsong voice, and now George was definitely glad he couldn’t remember what he had done that had made him so fun.

“So your idea of getting me to loosen up is getting me plastered,” George raised an eyebrow as Jack who had picked up his drink again.

“Well we’ll both be getting plastered,” he shrugged.

George’s scepticism must have shown on his face because Jack’s face lit up like it always did when he had a good idea. Or more accurately, what he considered to be a good idea. In George’s book he would probably mark it down as a terrible one.

“How ‘bout we turn it into a game then? I know you can’t resist a little bit of friendly competition,” Jack elbowed him grinning.

He had him there. The competitive streak in him had to rise to the challenge. The fact that Jack’s grin grew even wider confirmed that he knew it.

George sighed in defeat.

“Okay what did you have in mind?”

“Never have I ever- hey! Don’t look at me like that,” Jack caught George rolling his eyes, “You know I’ll end up drinking way more than you.”

That was probably true, but somehow it still made George blush to realise how much Jack knew about him in that respect. Given that they didn’t really talk about that stuff often. Yet Jack could still read him like a book.

“Fine, fine.”

“Awesome.”

Jack refilled both of their glasses, so George’s ended up filled to the brim. Then he cleared his throat.

“You go first. Oh! And you have to have a proper drink when you lose.”

“Okay, okay,” George thought for a moment, “Never have I ever had sex outside.”

Jack stuck his tongue out before he picked up his glass.

“For real?”

“Yeah. Not as fun as it looked.”

Jack clapped his hands together, “Okay. My turn...Never have I ever drunk so much I haven’t remembered the night before.”

George knew Jack knew he would get him to drink with that one. Slightly begrudgingly he picked up his glass. Jack wouldn’t let him put it down until he had drunk enough to satisfy him. By the time he’d finished his eyes were watering a little and he coughed weakly.

“You can do better than that,” Jack laughed, a glint in his eyes that made George smile.

“You’re on.”

Their back and forth began, Jack drank the most, but George definitely had enough to leave him feeling slightly lightheaded by the time Jack stood up to order them something else from the bar. George didn’t exactly think he had many secrets, but Jack seemed able to catch him out.

Jack returned from the bar with a tray carrying six shot glasses. He was grinning madly, and George could tell how tipsy he was from the way his face seemed to be glowing slightly and his cheeks were flushed.

“Vodka,” he said by way of announcement as he placed the tray on the table.

“This should end well.”

“Oh yeah,” Jack nodded, simply picking up one of the glasses and knocking it back.

“Hey! I didn’t get to ask you anything!”

“Who cares? Now I get to ask you two questions!” Jack shrugged before holding up two fingers and practically shoving them in George’s face. George just pushed his hand away.

“Okay…never have I ever kissed a girl,” George rolled his eyes and picked up one of the glasses. He was certain Jack was just picking obvious things that he knew George had done. Especially given that he’d basically been doing that the whole evening.

“You know the point is that you’re not supposed to have done the things you say, not just-,” George said but was interrupted by Jack shushing him and pressing his finger to George’s mouth to shut him up. When Jack moved his hand away George could still taste the alcohol on his lips.

Jack smirked at him before he said anything else.

“Never have I ever kissed a guy.”

George hesitated for a moment, but he could feel his face heating up and he knew there was no hiding from Jack. With his face burning he took another shot. Jack’s reaction wasn’t what he expected. He looked surprised and maybe a little bit pleased all at once. George assumed he had found out about it somehow. But now he guessed that he was actually curious.

“Wait, who? Who?!” Jack asked, sounding very excited and practically rising out of his chair as he spoke.

“I’m not telling you,” George shook his head, his face turning even redder, if that was possible.

“Aw come on, you have to!”

“No I really don’t.”

George didn’t feel weird about admitting the fact that he had kissed a guy before, but he didn’t want Jack reading too much into who it was. Because what George got up to when he wasn’t thinking about consequence weren’t things he liked to revisit. Especially because his reputation wasn’t one of hooking up with random strangers. Jack seemed to sense that because he didn’t ask again. There was a brief awkward pause before Jack cleared his throat.

“Okay, I still have two shots left, ask me something.”

It was clear he was trying to diffuse the tension, but George was feeling a bit ruffled after Jack’s pushiness. Which was probably a bit unfair, but his moods tended to be exaggerated when he was drunk. He just shrugged in response to Jack.

“Just drink them, you want to anyway.”

Jack frowned and out of the corner of his eye George could see him stick his tongue out at him. He had them both in quick succession, and with his hand hovering over the one remaining glass on the tray, George’s last one, he hesitated before drinking that too.

“Okay, now I really have to pee.”

George watched him stumble towards the toilets in the corner of the bar, and it was clear from how unsteady he was on his feet just how much he’d had to drink. He felt kind of bad, as he watched him leave through the door. George had retreated too far into his own head, again, and now he was so stuck there he’d ended up being rude to Jack, who was really just trying to have fun. Maybe that was what he meant when he told George to lighten up and have fun. Maybe that’s all he’d been trying to do. And George had closed up again and shut him out.

He sighed, trying to drain the last dregs from the shot glass Jack had just drained, coughing slightly when the last few burning drops of alcohol hit the back of his throat. Jack waved to him as he exited the toilets, but made a beeline for the bar instead, catching the bartender’s attention so he could order something else. Not that George was entirely sure he needed it from the way he practically clung onto the bar to keep himself upright.

He kept watching as a man, who had been standing a few feet away from Jack, suddenly sidled closer so their sides pressed together. Jack didn’t seem particularly phased, just looking up into his face as he spoke. George couldn’t tell what was being said, but Jack’s face hardened a little as he replied. The man continued to speak as two glasses of wine were placed into Jack’s waiting hands.

Then, in a turn of events so quick George barely kept up, he watched as Jack took one of the glasses and jerked it in the direction of the man, so red wine ended up splattered in his face, leaving him coughing and spluttering. Jack tipped his head back to laugh, in that loud, slightly obnoxious way he did when he was drunk. And it was probably lucky he did because the man’s fist missed hitting him square on the side of the head and just caught Jack’s chin. But it was still hard enough to wipe the smirk off Jack’s face and make George wince.

He saw Jack push the man back and that’s when George found himself picking up their jackets from their seats and rushing over to them before Jack got his drunk ass handed to him.

Rather than try to push the man off Jack, which he would never have a chance of doing given that he was twice his width, he instead wrapped his arms around Jack so he could pull him away and behind him, out of harm’s way.

“Get off me!!” Jack shouted, but George had knocked him off balance and he could barely stay on his feet let alone push past George and get back at this man.

“Your boyfriend is a psycho!” the man yelled at George in a thick French accent, his hot breath and spit getting all over his face.

George grimaced but he wasn’t about to get into an argument with a stranger in a bar in some town he’d never heard of before that day. He just started to push a struggling Jack towards the door, and apologised to the man and the bartender in broken French. He could feel the eyes of everyone else in the bar on them, and he couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

It was freezing outside, a stark contrast to the heat of the tiny bar, and George felt his hot cheeks flush deeper at the temperature change. He hoped the cold might sober Jack up a bit.

“Put this on,” George said, throwing Jack’s hoodie into his hands. Looking grumpy, a little shell-shocked and very drunk, Jack pulled the garment on over his head, almost stumbling on the slippy pavement so when his head appeared through the hole in the top of the fabric, George grabbed his arm and placed it around his own shoulders so he could help him stay on his first.

“What an arsehole,” Jack muttered, mostly to himself as George wrapped his other arm around his waist and started to walk him, very slowly and very carefully, down the street, hoping to God that he remembered where their hotel was. His own head was feeling fuzzy enough, though Jack’s antics had sobered him up a bit.

“What did you do that for Jack?” he had to ask, cringing at himself when his voice came out sounding exasperated, like a lecturing father.

“Because he was being rude!”

“I think he was just trying to hit on you,” George rolled his eyes.

“Not me! You!”

“Me?”

“Yes! He was asking me if you were single, and if I thought you’d be up for a, and I quote, _a good time_ ,” he said, making air quotes around the end of his sentence. George couldn’t help but curl his lip distastefully.

“Really?”

“Yes!” Jack insisted, turning his head to look at George who was too busy focusing on navigating their way through the icy streets to look anywhere other than the ground in front of him, “I told him to get lost and that you didn’t like men who fucked like a sweaty sack of potatoes in bed.”

Despite himself George had to laugh.

“I didn’t think his English would be good enough to understand what I said. But I think my tone gave it away. Then he said something gross about your ass and I threw the wine in his face.”

“Then he punched you.”

“Then he punched me.”

Jack looked oddly proud of himself, considering that he would have a lovely bruise in the morning.

“You should have ignored him,” George said, even though he knew that was not even remotely in Jack’s nature.

“Maybe.”

“How’s your chin?”

“Sore.”

Luckily, it wasn’t as far to their hotel as George had feared, because Jack was getting heavy, increasingly leaning more and more of his weight on George. He managed to get him up the stairs and into their room, rather unceremoniously pushing him onto the bed while he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and clean himself up a little.

When he exited the bathroom Jack was lying where he’d left him, staring up at the ceiling flat on his back.

“You feeling okay?” he asked, tilting his head so he could see Jack’s facial expression.

“Oh yeah,” Jack said giving him a thumbs up.

“Want a drink of water?”

“Nah I’m good.”

“Then budge up. I need space to sleep.”

Jack rolled over twice so he was on his half of the bed, snuggling down beneath the covers as George got into the bed. Once he was in, Jack rolled over back towards him and surprised George by wrapping his arms around him and pressing his face into his chest. He hoped Jack couldn’t feel how fast-

“Your heart is beating really hard.”

_Busted._

“It’s the alcohol.”

“Oh.”

Tentatively, in case Jack would remember that it was George he was lying with in bed and realise that he hadn’t meant to hug him, George waited a few seconds before wrapping his arms around Jack too. They were drunk. He was allowed to do stupid things.

“Thank you by the way,” he said, closing his eyes like that would save him some of the awkwardness he was feeling.

“For what?”

“Defending my honour?”

Jack laughed.

“Just call me your knight in shining armour.”


	6. vi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol i heart melodrama.

George woke to the sound of vomiting. Which he had to admit was probably one of the worst ways he’d ever been woken up. Trying not to cringe too much, the sound making his own stomach churn, he blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to seeing the room that was still cast in darkness. The first thing he noticed was that he was alone in the bed, the warmth of Jack’s body pressed against his now missing, then he saw the first creeping signs of daylight peaking through the half drawn curtains, and finally he saw the light spilling from the bathroom, as the door had been left ajar. And that was where the sound was coming from.

“Jack?” he asked, his voice croaky and groggy. There was no immediate response, just some feeble coughing. George sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes and wondering when the hell he’d decided to take off his t-shirt. Not bothering to turn on a light he stumbled across the room to the door and looked into the little bathroom.

As he expected, Jack was kneeling next to the toilet, his hands braced on the rim, poised like he was ready for another wave of nausea to hit him any second. He was still wearing the same clothes he had been the night before, and although George couldn’t see his face, he could imagine how pale he looked.

“Jack are you alright?” George tried hard to sound less like he was still half asleep, he wanted to at least sound like he could help Jack.

He watched as Jack attempted to turn to look at him, but quickly snapped back around so he could retch into the toilet again. Nothing actually came up but George knelt down next to his friend regardless, rubbing his hand over his shaking back.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” he reassured him, kind of redundantly, but he hoped his tone came across as somewhat comforting. Honestly, he wasn’t feeling too great himself, but he was definitely doing a damn sight better than Jack.

Jack spat into the toilet before he reached across and flushed it. He sat back on his heels and groaned, reaching across to pat George’s hand that was resting on his shoulder. He didn’t see anything, but he looked rough. Though it couldn’t have been that long since they had gone to bed, George could already see the beginnings of a bruise where Jack had been hit in the jaw.

“Shall I get you some water?” George asked.

“Please,” Jack’s voice sounded hoarse as he spoke. George stood up and leant over to the sink, tipping his toothbrush out of the glass he had been using as a holder and rinsing it out once before he filled it up with cold water from the tap. He handed it to Jack, who was not sat against the wall, his feet resting against the opposite wall, his knees bent. George sat down and mirrored his position, facing Jack instead. Maybe he should have left and gone back to bed, but it seemed weird and mean to leave Jack on his own.

Jack sipped the water carefully, drinking more thirstily when he seemed to conclude that his stomach wasn’t going to reject it.

“Thank you,” he said once he had drained the glass.

“That’s okay.”

“I’m not going to lie I can’t remember most of last night,” Jack said, lifting his shirt up to his face so he could wipe it.

“You can’t?”

“Nah, not really.”

“I thought you said that didn’t happen to you when you got pissed,” George said, remembering what Jack had said the previous evening when they had been playing their stupid game.

“Did I? Well I was probably lying if I said that.”

“Do you not remember picking a fight with the guy in the bar?”

Jack seemed to think for a second.

“Yeah I do. I remember him punching me in the face, I don’t remember why though.”

“He was…saying stuff about me,” George shrugged, but for some reason admitting Jack had defended him made him blush. Jack seemed to smile at the idea though.

“Aren’t I a good friend?”

“Yeah,” George said, the words sounding more thoughtful than he meant them to.

George didn’t willingly divulge anything else that had happened the previous night, and Jack didn’t ask. It might have been that Jack remembered, but there was also a good chance he didn’t. And George would just rather not know.

“Do you have any idea of the time?” George asked by way of changing the topic.

“Uh,” Jack placed the glass down and reached into his back pocket to pull out his phone, “Almost six in the morning. Guess there’s no point trying to go back to sleep. We have to be out of here by ten.”

“Are you okay to drive?”

“I’ll have to be.”

Even though it was slightly unnecessary, George helped Jack to his feet and the two of them packed up their few belongings and got ready in relative quiet. They’re all checked out of the hotel and loading up the car before seven.

“Do you think we could grab breakfast later? I don’t think I could stomach food right now,” Jack asked as he got into the driver’s seat.

“Yeah that’s fine,” George lied, ignoring the hunger that’s gnawing away at his stomach. Usually he’s worried about eating too much, but the past few days he really hasn’t been eating enough and he’s learnt that he really does need three square meals a day, despite his wishes to the contrary.

Jack still looked drained and ill but he starts the car and gives George his phone so he can follow the directions he’s pulled up on Google Maps. It told him that it should take around nine hours to get to Paris, traffic depending, which means they can totally do it in one day, if Jack is up to it.

They don’t talk much at first, both of them tired and suffering from the alcohol from the night before. George is too distracted replaying the events of the previous night over in his head, as he often does when he’s gone out, trying to make sure he didn’t do anything too stupid. His memories are a little fuzzy but he’s confident he can remember everything. Even the part where he’d decided to cuddle with Jack in bed. He glances at his friend driving and prays to God he doesn’t remember that part. Although, it had been him who had initiated, and he had been asking questions that seemed to be heading in a direction George didn’t quite know what to do with. But then again Jack had been well on his way to getting hammered. However, it didn’t change the fact that recently George felt as though Jack had been looking at him like he could see more than he wanted him to.

“Hello! Earth to George?” Jack waved a hand in front of his face and shook him from his thoughts, George blinked a few times and realised he had been so wrapped up in his head that he’d completely zoned out.

“What? Yeah, uh, sorry.”

“Are you okay? You’ve been staring at me for like the past two minutes. It’s slightly unnerving,” Jack laughed, turning his eyes back to the road in front of him.

“I have?”

George was fully aware he had been.

“Yeah.”

“Sorry I was just thinking.”

“…About?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Jack did not look convinced.

“Okay…Well could you tell me where the turning is, you said it was coming up soon?”

“Uh yeah sure,” George looks down at the phone in his hand and presses the button on the side, before realising that he needs Jack’s password, “I need your password.”

Jack holds out his hand.

“Give it here, I’ll put it in.”

“Jack you’re driving! No way!”

“I’m not telling you my password!” Jack snapped, in a manner that really wasn’t like him. George recoiled a little, but he didn’t hand the phone over. George didn’t see what the big deal was, he wasn’t the type to fuck with Jack just because he had his phone, and he could always change his password when they got to Paris if he was really so bothered. And besides, it was Jack, he didn’t keep things from people.

“Don’t be stupid. I can’t tell you where to go if you don’t tell me,” George rolled his eyes.

“I’m not telling you, okay?! Just give me the phone, it’ll take ten seconds, nothing bad will happen.”

“No! You can’t use your phone while you’re driving!”

“Don’t be such a fucking stickler for the rules George.”

Maybe he was being a too much of a goody-two-shoes, and maybe he was actually more bothered about the principle of Jack not telling him his password. He couldn’t think of a time where he’d asked Jack for something and he hadn’t told him. But he felt secure that he had the moral high ground in this argument, even if he was being petty.

“I’m not! You drive for a living Jack, you should know better,” George did not point out that their stupid argument was distracting Jack more than the phone ever would have.

“You sound like my Dad, just give me the phone,” Jack groaned and reached across to try snatch his phone from George’s hand. He only succeeded in grabbing onto George’s closed hand, as he curled his fist around the phone.

“Jack get off!” he tried to tug his hand away but only succeeded in pulling Jack almost out of his seat.

“George! Let go.”

“No!”

The two of them squabbled childishly, Jack’s attention completely off the road by now. It wasn’t until George glanced through the windscreen, that he realised Jack had drifted and was now almost driving on the completely wrong side of the road.

“Jack!” he yelped, shoving him off harshly so he was now firmly on his side of the car. Jack seemed to realise what he was looking at because he started and turned the wheel sharply to avoid the oncoming traffic.

He must have moved too suddenly because the car didn’t seem to want to stop moving, even when Jack slammed his foot on the brake. The rear end spun round, so they were both essentially just passengers in the car as it continued to spin them off the road, bumping across the dusty path that lined the road, and finally coming to a stop in the long grass beyond that.

George tried to brace himself, but he still managed to bash his head off the window as the car jolted and jerked around. He vaguely thought he heard Jack yelling something, but he couldn’t hear it over the sound of screeching tyres and ringing in his ears. He’d been in plenty of crashes in his lifetime, it was an occupational hazard, it came with the territory, but he’d never been in one where he hadn’t been in control, and never when he was driving a road car. Or when he hadn’t been wearing a helmet for that matter.

When the car finally stopped moving, the two of them sat there, in complete silence. George could feel his heart hammering as the familiar sensation of adrenaline running through his body took hold. His head was already beginning to pound, no doubt a combination of the hit and his hangover, and when he looked down he realised that he was still holding that fucking phone in his hand. His first coherent thought was that he had to get out of the car.

He glanced at Jack and saw that he looked as dazed as George felt, his hands still clutching the wheel rather pointlessly.

“What the fuck?” Jack murmured, and when he fought to undo his seatbelt George noticed that his hands were shaking. He clambered from the car pretty hurriedly, George following him soon after.

As he stood staring at their rental car, George’s emotions were torn between shock, fear, and honestly, just a whole lot of anger. If Jack hadn’t been acting like such a child, this never would have happened. He latched onto that final emotion because it seemed like the easiest one to deal with.

“Nice one Jack,” he snapped, looking at the rear tyre which had blown out, probably as they’d ran over the gravel, the impact of that had probably been what had made him hit his head.

Jack snapped his head to look at him, looking at once betrayed and hurt.

“How is this my fault?!”

“You were the one driving!”

“If you’d just given me my phone then-!”

“You could have just told me the password instead of acting like an idiot!” George shouted, waving the phone in his hand. Jack narrowed his eyes at him and folded his arms across his chest.

“Fine! The password is 150298, now unlock it and pass it to me so I can call the fucking breakdown recovery.”

George practically stabbed the phone with his thumbs as he typed it in, vaguely aware that the combination of numbers sounded familiar, but not realising until after he had handed the phone to Jack.

“That’s my birthday,” his voice was quieter and calmer than it had been just a few seconds before.

“I know,” Jack grumbled, but he turned away from George before he could see his face, pressing the phone to his ear.

George really didn’t know what to do with that information. Jack could have played it off as a coincidence, it he’d wanted to. But he hadn’t. Which meant it wasn’t. But George couldn’t possibly think why Jack had chosen to set that as his password. Well actually he could. And now it made a lot more sense why Jack hadn’t wanted to tell him what it was.

He perched on the hood of the car and watched Jack’s turned back, suddenly feeling guilty for being so mad and blaming him for the accident. Really it was both of their faults. He didn’t really need any of this while he was trying to process the shock of running their car off the road. But he didn’t think he had the luxury of ignoring this particular piece of information.

He saw Jack hang up and pocket his phone. But he didn’t turn back to face George. Instead he buried his face in his hands and it took George a few seconds to realise he was crying. Standing up he walked over to Jack and placed a hand on his back, much like he had that morning when he’d found him in the bathroom. Jack jumped a little and wiped his face.

“Sorry, I think I’m just-,”

“I know.”

George guessed he probably just felt overwhelmed, much like he did, but he didn’t want Jack to explain that. He led him over to where he had been perched just moments ago and sat them both down.

“How long did they say they’d be?”

“A couple of hours.”

George figured that gave them plenty of time to talk. Which they clearly needed to do.


	7. vii.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok i'm actually lowkey happy with the way this turned out.

George decided he’d just deal with one problem at a time. He himself was in danger of getting over faced and spiralling into a nervous breakdown if he tried to think about everything that had just happened and the revelation in the back of his mind that he needed to process. But right now the most pressing thing seemed to be that Jack was teetering on the edge of bursting into tears again.

He figured it had to be the shock of their shunt off the road. He had seen Jack cry exactly once before in his life, and those had been tears of frustration when he had been ranting about some racing incident George couldn’t remember the details of. He wasn’t much of a crier. He was more the type to make some joke about it and laugh it off to diffuse the tension. But he was also human. And George had to admit that what had just happened had scared him, and he hadn’t been driving.

“You okay?” he asked Jack, removing his arm off his shoulders, suddenly aware that he didn’t want to push any boundaries. He stayed close though, to let Jack know he was there, and he was willing to listen.

Jack took a deep breath. Or tried to at least. It came out rather hiccupping and shaky.

“Yeah. I’m alright. Just gave myself a bit of a fright there,” he said, wringing his hands together.

“Mm, yeah me too,” George nodded, still finding himself unable to shake that feeling of adrenaline that was still coursing through his body.

“I’m really sorry George, I was being so stupid. I could have got us really hurt, it was just so… _stupid_ ,” he looked up at George as he spoke, his eyes shining again as he spoke in earnest.

“It’s okay Jack, we’re fine,” he reassured him, trying to smile as convincingly as he could.

Jack inhaled deeply again, and George decided that he no longer seemed to be in imminent danger of breaking down. A silence followed, in which George tried to work out the best way to broach the next subject on his mind.

It was obvious enough what he could deduce from the fact that his birthday was Jack’s password, and his reluctance to tell him that. That, coupled with the drunken cuddling, his sudden interest in the fact that George kissed guys and was therefore clearly attracted to them. Even his insistence to pull George out of his comfort zone and get him to have some fun. He could very easily come up with one clear conclusion.

But at the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to decide that was it. And he definitely couldn’t ask Jack if that’s what this was all about. The idea was still too wild, too insane to wrap his head around.

Just when he thought he had decided how he could tackle the topic, Jack sprung up from his seat next to him on the hood of the car and walked round to take a look at the damage he had done to the rear tyre. George watched him crouch down beside it and reach out to feel the deflated rubber.

“I hope they don’t charge me for this,” he said, just loud enough for George to hear.

“I think they will,” George had to say.

“I should just say it was an accident, try to claim it on the insurance. Replacing the tyre is going to cost enough, and then I’ll have to pay for breakdown,” Jack sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“I’ll split it half and half with you,” George offered.

“Nah I can’t ask you to do that.”

“It was both of our faults this happened.”

“I was driving,” Jack shrugged, guilt evident in his tone.

George was about to say something else, to steer the conversation back in a direction he meant it to go. But Jack stood up, still staring at the tyre and carried on talking.

“Do you think I’ll have to get another rental car? God that’ll cost a fortune. Or maybe we can get the breakdown people to drop us off at the nearest town and we can get the train. Although we have a lot of luggage so that wouldn’t be great. But I am starving so I wouldn’t mind re-entering civilisation and finding some breakfast…”

Jack kept talking. And talking. About what he would eat should they find food, and his most detailed thoughts on French supermarkets. At first George thought it was a way of dampening his frayed nerves from the accident. But then he realised Jack wasn’t letting him get a word in edgeways, and he realised it was more likely about exactly what George was trying to get him to talk about. Or rather, that Jack didn’t want to have that particular conversation.

“Jack,” George interrupted him, and watched him stand up to his full height and turn around to look at George. He looked a lot like a deer caught in headlights.

“Yeah?”

“Can we, uh, could we talk about…you know,” he didn’t know how he was supposed to finish that sentence. He could already feel his pulse rising and his face flushing under Jack’s gaze, the first nerves creeping up on his and making him regret ever saying anything.

“The password thing?” Jack said, the smile sliding from his face, until his lips were pressed into an expression that read pure discomfort.

“Yeah.”

Jack hesitated for a second before he walked and perched next to George on the bonnet of the car again. It was cold, now that they’d been stood outside for a while, but George didn’t want to suggest moving to sit inside the car for some reason.

Jack sighed.

“I mean I don’t need to tell you what that means. Do I?”

“A-actually, I’d quite like some clarification,” George said, trying for a wry smile. Even though the thought had passed through his mind, it would be different to hear Jack say it. It would be more real. For all he knew, he was just jumping to conclusions.

Jack actually laughed, it was short and nervous, but he laughed all the same.

“You know I had it in my head that when we got to Paris I’d say something really smooth and ask you out for dinner, and it’d be all romantic and I’d just sweep your right off your feet. If you said yes of course. But I guess why not do it sat on the hood of a car I just crashed?”

He shrugged and finally looked up at George, after the two of them had been avoiding eye contact whilst Jack spoke.

“I like you. As in, I have a big, stupid, annoying crush on you.”

Jack’s cheeks turned a faint shade of pink as he spoke, but it was nothing compared to the flaming red on George’s face. He felt his breath hitch as Jack spoke, and he tried not to let the way it made him feel show. But he hadn’t prepared himself for his own reaction. There was still a lot of disbelief there, but something else too.

“You do?” he said, his voice hushed and surprised, like he still needed Jack to reassure him that this wasn’t some joke or trick.

“Yeah. Honestly I’m surprised you haven’t noticed.”

“I…” the idea of people being interested in him in that way didn’t fully compute in George’s head. And certainly not people like Jack. He was the kind of person who could have anyone he wanted. He didn’t need someone like George.

And yet, he was looking at him with such an unguarded expression that George realised he was really putting his heart out on the line. And though it hadn’t been nearly enough time for George to wrap his head around how he felt. He knew that he couldn’t hurt Jack. And he found himself wanting to hear Jack say those kinds of things to him again.

“It’s no big deal if you don’t feel the same way. I didn’t even know if you were even into guys until last night, so I’m totally prepared for rejection. I wouldn’t have acted any differently if I didn’t have a crush on you, just so you know. I really do like you as a friend too, and I want you to be happy either way.”

George smiled, but he still didn’t really know what to say.

“Sorry it’s just a lot to get my head around,” he chewed on his lip, trying not to look like he was thinking about this so much.

“Are you really surprised by this?” Jack asked, looking confused that this thought had never occurred to George before.

“Yeah. I mean, I had no idea you liked me like that. It’s…I dunno, I almost don’t believe you.”

“Have you not seen the way I look at you?”

George blushed harder at that. The only time he had ever thought Jack had looked at him in any way that had ever struck him as different was just the day before when he had walked in on George naked in the bathroom. But there was a very obvious reason why that should be the case.

Jack exhaled quickly and stood up, wiping his hands on the front of his jeans.

“Anyway, now that’s out of the way, I’m gonna sit in the car because it’s bloody freezing out here.”

George had expected Jack to say something else, for them to talk about this a little longer but he guessed there wasn’t really an awful lot more to say. Not while he attempted to process the whole thing. He watched Jack walk to the driver’s seat and realised that he too was very cold.

“I’m gonna get a jumper out my suitcase, do you want one?”

“Uh yeah, please.”

Struggling with the zipper and his cold hands, George found a hoodie and a fleece Mercedes had given him and figured they would do. He passed the hoodie to Jack as he got in the passenger side and pulled on the grey fleece, rubbing his hands together to try warm them up.

“This is yours,” Jack said looking down at the item of clothing he held in his hands.

“Yeah it is,” George said as though it was obvious, and only then did it hit him that sharing clothes might not be an okay thing to do anymore, “Sorry I just didn’t want to go rooting around in your suitcase. I can get you one of your own if you like.”

“No, no, it’s alright,” Jack said, seeming to shake himself out of it as he pulled it on over his head. It was a bit big for him but it fit, Jack crossed his arms across his chest and the oversized hoodie almost worked as a blanket, “Thank you.”

“That’s okay.”

Neither of them said anything for a minute. Then another. And another. And George quickly realised that for the first time he could remember, he found himself lapsing into an awkward and uncomfortable silence with Jack. He wondered if it was his fault, for not having something better to say in response to Jack’s confession than the insecure answer he had come up with.

“Do you mind if I play some music?” Jack asked suddenly, clearly hating the quiet as much as George was.

“No, that’s fine.”

He watched Jack pull out his phone and put in on shuffle before he placed it on the dashboard and leant back against his seat, his eyes shut. He stretched the sleeves of George’s hoodie over his hands, wrapping his arms around his legs as he tucked his knees into his chest, curled up into a tight ball. George felt like he was looking for something different when he stared at him. But he was the same Jack he’d always been.

“Jack?” he said, quiet enough that his words could have got lost under the sounds of the music if Jack hadn’t been listening hard enough. But he was.

“Yeah?” he said, without opening his eyes.

George didn’t know what on earth he was thinking when he turned in his seat and reached across. He really wanted to know what Jack meant when he talked about the way he looked at George. And maybe he wanted to know how doing this would make him feel now he could let himself believe that he could be wanted.

Gently, his fingers brushed Jack’s so his eyes opened and he looked down to see what was happening. He looked up at George before he moved his hand so he could hold George’s. Or maybe he just moved so George could hold his hand. Either way they were now holding hands.

Jack looked at him the same way he always had. But now George knew what that meant.


	8. viii.

It could have been incredibly awkward, sitting holding hands with Jack. And sure, it wasn’t the most comfortable situation George had ever been in, but it was somehow better than the tension that had been stewing in before. After a few seconds of watching George’s face carefully, Jack had smiled softly and closed his eyes again, still keeping a hold of George’s hand. George wondered if he was napping, but he didn’t know how he could do that with the weird mix of music playing from his phone.

Though George soon found out that it was actually kind of easy to do. He was tired and hungry, and he felt himself drifting off to sleep. It felt like his eyes were closed for just a second, but it must have been longer because Jack was shaking him awake to let him know that the breakdown recovery vehicle had arrived. He jerked as he woke up, finding that he was still facing Jack’s seat, but his hand was now resting in the space between the seats, and he had cramp in his legs from staying in one position for too long. He also had the beginnings of a pounding headache, no doubt from the nice whack to the head he’d taken.

By the time he had fully woken up Jack was already out of the car and shaking the hand of the man driving the truck. George got out and headed towards them just as the man was explaining that he would take them to the nearest garage where it should be a simple case of changing the tyre.

“Sounds good to me,” Jack nodded, smiling in that infinitely friendly way he even seemed able to do with strangers. He looked at George who just copied his expression and nodded as well;

“Thank you.”

“Well it is my job,” the man said in a light French accent, “You should get anything you need out the car, and then I’ll get it onto the back of the truck. You can sit up in the cabin, it should not take long.”

Jack and George collected their things from the car, and sat up in the front of the truck while the man hauled their rental car onto the back of the truck. Neither of them said much, the awkward silence returning. Except from when George asked;

“Did you call the rental company?”

And Jack replied;

“Yeah when you were asleep.”

And a couple minutes later when Jack said;

“While the car is being fixed I’m gonna go find some food, I’m starving.”

Apart from that it was quiet. George found himself desperately wanting to say something. Sure the hand holding had got something across, but Jack could have easily thought it was a gesture of comfort or even pity. He knew what he wanted to say, it was on the tip of his tongue, but he badly needed a healthy dose of courage he didn’t have if he was to say anything. He could also do with rehearsing what he wanted to say about a thousand times in his head. But right now it was filled with how warm and fuzzy it had made him feel inside to hear Jack admit those things. And sure it had made his heart beat at a million miles an hour to feel Jack’s hand in his own, but he wanted to do it again. He wanted to do more.

He was saved from suffering through the awkward silence by the man telling them it was already to go, starting the engine and beginning to drive away. It was slow going, with such a heavy load strapped to the back of the truck, but their new driver seemed keen on striking up a conversation with them.

And when he learnt what they did for a living, he was positively enthused, barraging them with questions. Not that either of them minded at all. He was particularly pleased to learn about Jack’s connection to Renault.

It helped distract George from everything rushing around in his head, and it was rather nice to be stuck in the warm cabin of the truck with him. He took them to the nearby town of Poitiers, where they stopped at a garage just outside of the old city centre. The man spoke with the mechanics there before telling them it would take around an hour to get to changing their tyre and making sure there was no more damage.

Once they were free to go, they both set off in search of food.

“Do you think we could go to a pharmacy or something?” George asked.

“Yeah of course. Are you okay?” Jack asked, looking slightly alarmed as he glanced up at George’s face.

“Yeah, yeah. I just have a headache. I hit my head earlier.”

George tried to ignore the guilty look on Jack’s face, and avoided eye contact so he couldn’t apologise. That just pushed them right into another awkward silence, which honestly, was starting to drive George insane. Not that he was doing anything about it.

He let Jack pay for the painkillers in the first pharmacy they walked past, promising to pay him back later. And the two of them trekked into the nearest supermarket to pick up sandwiches and water. It wasn’t much, but they were both so hungry they didn’t really mind what they were eating as long as it was edible.

That still left them with about forty minutes before their car would be ready, so instead of heading back to sit in a draughty garage, they walked further into the small city, eating their sandwiches as they went. George could practically feel his body sigh in relief as he finally fed himself, and between the food, the water, and the painkillers, he was feeling much more like his usual self.

The two of them walked down narrow, pedestrianized streets until they came to a small square which George presumed had to be the centre of the city. In the middle sat an old church, with a few market stalls set up in front of it, selling books and fruit and tourist tat. There weren’t a lot of people around, some students, sat outside the cafes despite the freezing weather just so they could have the cigarette that seemed to be glued to their hands. They walked round the church in almost total silence, only breaking it to point something out or make some meaningless comment.

George kept willing himself to say something, anything that might stop this stupid tension that had settled over the two of them. He wanted so badly for Jack to make one of his silly jokes and for all of this to end, but he kept uncharacteristically quiet. Like he was trying to give George space, even though they were basically stuck together.

“Jack?” he said quietly, after a few seconds of watching Jack stare up at the ornate brickwork, the two of them having come to a stop in front of the church.

Jack just made a little noise and looked at George, his expression questioning but slightly apprehensive as well. It was only when George really looked at him, that he realised Jack was still wearing his hoodie, which stirred some unidentifiable feeling within him.

“George?” he asked, his voice now sounding worried. George realised that he had simply been staring and no words had come out of his mouth at all. He still didn’t have the words he needed, and he was staring to look like a complete idiot, with his face turning steadily red and his mouth opening and closing uselessly.

Jack frowned at him, and George just sighed;

“Fuck it.”

He thought about how much he liked hearing Jack admit he liked him, and how he knew there wasn’t a part of him that could let Jack down, that could hurt him by rejecting him, and he thought about those things and ignored all the thoughts that said Jack was out of his league, and he didn’t know what he meant when he said he liked George. He just looked at Jack instead.

And he kissed him.

His hands were numb and shaking from the bitter chill in the air when he tried to hold Jack’s face, and his first thought was of how cold Jack’s lips were against his. Then it was followed by the horrible realisation that Jack had stiffened up in shock and he wasn’t moving at all. He felt a wave of embarrassment and stupidity for the brief second he thought he’d made a terrible mistake.

But then Jack grabbed the back of his neck, like he wouldn’t dare let him move away. He kissed George back, and George forgot about everything else.

He didn’t care that he didn’t really know what he was doing and Jack clearly. He didn’t even care for once in his life that people were probably staring. His brain had gone into meltdown and all he could focus on was the feeling of Jack’s hot breath on his face, and his icy fingers that had tangled themselves in his hair.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” Jack murmured against his lips both of them panting as they broke apart for air. George didn’t think Jack could hold him any closer if he tried.

“I can’t believe I did either,” George was blushing, but he was smiling too. Proud of himself for finding some courage somewhere to do that, and happy beyond words that doing that had been everything he could scarcely dream of. He was terrified, of course, because he didn’t know where they went from there. But Jack pulled back a little further, his hand still on the back of George’s neck, and he smiled, and George knew that wherever it was, it would be good.

“Do you believe me that I like you now?” Jack asked.

“I think so.”

Jack laughed and he glanced around a little nervously, but everyone was ignoring them, or at least pretending to. He finally dropped his hands, and when he did the first thing George wanted was to feel them on him again.

“We should get back to the garage,” he said, though he looked reluctant.

“Yeah, you’re right,” George agreed, and he wished his voice didn’t sound as breathless as it did to him. Jack must have heard it too because he laughed and bumped George on the shoulder in a gesture that meant he should follow him.

They still didn’t really say anything as they walked back through the narrow streets. But it didn’t feel as painful as it had before. George couldn’t keep the grin off his face, and it looked like Jack was having trouble doing so as well. They walked closer this time, and George felt his heart jump and his face flush every time their hands brushed together. He was even convinced that Jack was doing it on purpose.

When they got back to the garage their car was ready to go, new tyre fitted and looking as good as it could after their shunt. Jack wrote the man a cheque for his time and work.

“When we get home-,” George started to say as the two of them headed back to their car.

“You’ll pay me back for half of it. I know,” Jack shook his head fondly and rolled his eyes as he got into the driver’s seat.

“Well I will,” George muttered, half hating and half loving that Jack could read it so easily. Or maybe it was the fact that he’d promised to do that for almost everything they’d paid for on this trip.

The two of them pulled out of the garage once Jack got the directions to Paris up on his phone, which said it would only take them around four hours. But it only took Jack around thirty seconds to open his mouth and ask George about what had happened.

“So…that kiss huh?” he said, sounding like he was talking about something mundane and everyday, but George could see him grinning out of the corner of his eye.

“Yeah. It, uh, happened.”

“Oh come on George. You have to give me more than that, you’re killing me!”

George turned to look at Jack and saw that while he was half joking, his facial expression was as serious as he’d ever seen him. Like he was begging George to say something to put him out of his misery.

“Okay,” he took a deep breath, still unsure why this was so difficult when it was quite clear that Jack didn’t look at him and see someone who wasn’t good enough, that he only saw someone he wanted to be with, “I like you too.”

He said it so quickly, the words falling from his mouth in one rushed breath. But it didn’t seem to do justice to everything he was thinking.

“At least I think I do. I mean, I must do. It’s just, you’re so…and I’m just, well, just _me_. I don’t know what you see in me, but you must see something. And I really want to see where this goes, and god I want to kiss you again. I just don’t want to be a disappointment. Like, what if I’m not as good as you’re imagining? You’re so out of my league Jack it’s like we’re not even in the same universe.”

He stopped himself before he said anything else stupid and self deprecating, because he was pretty sure Jack was looking at him like he was insane. Or maybe with a hint of pity. Which was ten times worse.

“Look George. Let’s be real, I already know almost everything there is to know about you, if there was something about you that was going to let me down, it would have happened by now. Yeah I know you’re too hard on yourself, and you put yourself down when you don’t deserve it. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, or so easy to get on with, or super smart. George I know you, and of course I still like you. Okay?”

George honestly felt like he couldn’t breathe when he heard Jack saw all of that. If he thought his confession before had floored him, it was nothing compared to that. He felt like crying, but he didn’t want to make a fool of himself.

“Jack...”

But it seemed Jack wasn’t finished.

“And enough of this about me being out of your league. That’s bullshit. You’re hot as fuck George, I don’t care what you say or what you see when you look in the mirror, it’s true.”

He couldn’t help but laugh, but it came out sounding a bit watery and weak. Jack glanced over at him, he looked like he wanted to reach across and hug him, but of course he was driving so he couldn’t. Instead he settled for reaching across and squeezing his hand.

“I really want this George. And if you do too, that would be the greatest thing in the world.”

George moved his hand so he could lace their fingers together.

“I do. I want this as well.”

***

They get to Paris a few hours later. And George was surprised by how much he wished he could just stay in the car with Jack, in their tiny little bubble, sheltered from the rest of the world where things are much more complicated. But he’s also not surprised. Because it’s Jack, and he’s always liked spending time with him.

But they have to leave, they have the rest of their lives to get on with. They parked in the underground garage beneath their hotel. And both of them just sat for a minute after Jack killed the engine. Like he didn’t want to leave either.

George smiled. Because he had to agree.

“Does that offer for dinner still stand?” George asked after several minutes of quiet contemplation.

“Uh, absolutely,” Jack didn’t look like he expected George to suggest that. But he looked happy to agree.

“Shall we go after we get checked in and let the team know we’ve arrived?”

“Yeah. I’d like that a lot.”

Jack was grinning wider than George thought he’d ever seen him. And he was looking at him with an expression of pleasant disbelief on his face. George watched him fumble with his seatbelt before he rather ungracefully clambered over the gearstick and handbrake to sit in George’s lap, his knees wedged either side of George’s legs. It couldn’t have been particularly comfortable, he had to stoop down slightly to stop his head from hitting the roof of the car, but he didn’t look like he cared at all.

George felt like he should have been freaking out, but he was enjoying having Jack so close too much to even notice the awkwardness that simmered beneath the surface. He rested his hands on either side of Jack’s hips as he dipped his head to kiss him.

It didn’t have the spontaneity of their first kiss. But that didn’t mean it was any less brilliant.

“This could really be something you know?” Jack said, resting their foreheads together.

“Us?”

“Yeah us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also yes, i have added another chapter to this story. it's just gonna be a short little epilogue, but it's another chapter nonetheless :)


	9. epilogue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> barcelona was just too good not to include in this. and you can thank @damsindistress for convincing me to add this. it's short but it felt good to round it all off :)

George knew it was a bit risky to head straight to the podium when he got out of his car. Most drivers were heading into their team trucks to cool down and get changed before they had to debrief. But George headed straight to their pit wall and starting shaking the team’s hands. But if he was being honest he was there for one thing. He knew how much this win meant to Jack, and how hard he was working to get there. He leant against the railing just as the announcer starting calling the names of the third and second place drivers. He clapped as Alex and Lando took their place on the podium, but he felt like he was about to burst with pride when Jack came bounding out, his signature smile on his face.

There was no hiding the smile on George’s face, he didn’t care that there was a camera shoved in his face broadcasting it across the world, he was just happy. He wasn’t sure if Jack could actually see him from where he stood. But when he looked down at the team, holding his first place trophy above his head, he looked straight at George, right into his eyes, and he smiled even wider, if that was possible.

“Wishing you were up there?” one of his mechanics joked, elbowing George in the ribs.

George just laughed, thinking that he had no idea what was really going on in his head. Sure, he’d love to be up there with Jack. But he was happy to let him have his moment.

Once the anthems were played, and the champagne was sprayed, George headed back to the team truck, changing into shorts and a polo shirt as he started to pack up his bag. He was almost done when the door opened, and Jack walked in, his podium hat perched atop his head and his huge trophy in his hand. He beamed when he saw George was there.

“Hey there winner,” George smiled, putting down the gloves he had been putting away so he could turn to look at Jack properly.

“I like being a member of this club,” Jack grinned putting his trophy down next to all of his belongings, which were strewn across his side of the truck.

George chuckled, walking the two steps it took to close the distance between him and Jack and wrapping his arms around him. Jack stopped just short of pressing his lips to George’s.

“I don’t know what’s better though, the trophy, or seeing you staring up at me on the podium like a lovesick puppy,” he smirked, brushing his nose against George’s cheek.

“Hey! I did not look like a lovesick puppy,” George pouted.

“Oh you totally did, and it was the best thing ever,” Jack nodded, pressing kiss after kiss to George’s face and neck. He giggled, Jack’s lip tickling his skin.

“Stop it,” he protested weakly, trying to move away from Jack’s mouth, “Just kiss me properly.”

“Okay bossy.”

They were both smiling when they headed out to dinner with their friends later that evening, a good weekend for all of them meant that they felt like celebrating. Despite the fact that he knew he shouldn’t be too obvious, George couldn’t bring himself to leave Jack’s side. But it had been that way since winter testing.

“This is so much better than last time we were in Barcelona,” Jack said, clinking his fourth, or possibly fifth, glass of wine against George’s as he leant up against his side.

George laughed, taking a sip from his own glass.

“Way better,” he agreed, ignoring the strange looks their friends were sending their way. He was content to let them guess what they meant.

Jack lowered his voice and leant in a bit closer, but still speaking loud enough for their friends to listen if they chose to.

“You know what? I think I have everything I want now.”

“Yeah? Me too.”


End file.
